Going South
by clever.tricks
Summary: Gary fantasises about performing grand deeds.


_Author's Note: Written for Goldenlake SMACKDOWN, 2011._

Lying fully dressed above the blankets, Raoul stretched, curled and wiggled, luxuriating in the softness and spring of his bed. "Palace life is making you soft," Gary accused.

Raoul turned to look at him. "Hark who's talking," he said. Gary wasn't sitting on Raoul's chair so much as he was oozing into it. He slithered around and slung his legs over the back of the chair, so his head dangled where his legs would usually be. He grinned at Raoul upside down.

"What's that? I'm as tough as any other son of a bitch out there."

Raoul surveyed him, openly sceptical and covertly tender. "False bravado doesn't become you," he said, but Gary just grinned again and shook his head so his hanging locks swung wildly. "Your face is going all red."

"I'm blushing under your indecent gaze."

"All the blood's going to your head."

"Funny – it usually goes in the other direction."

Raoul shook his head while the rest of him trembled in silent laughter and frustration. "Well, you _are_ upside down."

"Anyway, stop trying to escape my criticisms. I hope you're not getting too used to lounging around the palace. There won't be any soft beds where we're out adventuring."

"How can you be sure?" Raoul asked, "Maybe some nice peasant girls will offer us their beds to share."

"Undoubtedly they will! Two strapping young knights like us? Naturally we must accept their offers – for courtesy's sake, of course."

"Of course."

"But we'll be out in the wilderness most of the time. There won't be any pretty girls to share their beds out there. We'll have to get along by ourselves. In winter, we'll probably have to share a bedroll – for survival's sake, of course."

"Of course."

"You'll pretty much go along with anything, won't you, Raoul?"

"You'll pretty much propose anything, won't you, Gary?"

"There's never any harm in asking for something."

"And there's no harm in agreeing, when you know there's no follow-through."

Gary narrowed his eyes, "If I say I'll do something, I do it."

"_Nearly_ always."

"So _anyway_," Gary changed the subject, "Alan's planning to travel when he gets his shield. Do you think we should ask him to join us?"

"We could," Raoul said tentatively, "Unless his plans have changed."

"What makes you say that?"

"He and Jon seem pretty close these days. I just thought he might change his mind and stay here instead."

"Perhaps. In either case, I was thinking we could go to Carthak."

"I thought we decided to go west," Raoul said, "Why the change of mind?"

"I mentioned our plans to Roger, and he recommended Carthak. Remember he studied at the university there?"

"I didn't realise you wanted to travel for scholarly pursuits."

"I don't! He was describing the place and it seemed full of colour and opportunities for adventures. Slavery's still legal there – imagine if we freed all the slaves! Talk about a grand deed!"

"I thought you wanted to go to Tyra?"

"Well, yes. But Carthak sounds so exotic. Think of the damsels we could rescue, all the beasts we could slay!"

"Alright, we'll go to Carthak if you want to."

"Good. That's settled, then." Gary got to his feet, but he staggered, dizzy as the blood drained rapidly from his head. Raoul leapt up to steady him.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Now that all my blood's going back to its usual places, I can probably spare enough for a really fun evening." Raoul's hand tightened reflexively around Gary's wrist, but almost immediately he recovered himself and let go. Rolling his eyes, he sat back down on the bed.

"You're going to end up in a sticky situation, the day someone actually accepts one of your offers."

After a moment, Gary plopped down beside Raoul and sighed. "You're right, Carthak's a bad idea. But you're wrong about one thing."

"And what's that?"

Gary took a deep breath of preparation, then, by way of reply, he lifted his hand from the blanket, ran it up Raoul's spine and firmly gripped the back of his neck. "That I don't have any follow-through." He pulled Raoul's face to meet his, rather more forcefully than he had intended, hoping with everything he had that Raoul would agree to this. He gasped when Raoul's mouth opened for him, responding with hunger and a desperate thirst, as if he had stumbled onto an unexpected oasis in the desert. In their kiss was the rupturing of years of repressed, often baited desire, made savage by denial and teasing.

"I didn't think you'd actually do it," Raoul rasped when at last they parted, "I never thought you were serious."

"Raoul, _you_ are the only thing I've ever been truly serious about doing." At this, Raoul caught Gary up in another storm of a kiss, and bore him down onto the bed, swinging a leg over to mount him.

"Do me, then," he said in a scraping whisper, though his mouth never left Gary's. 


End file.
